THE NATIONS: Thinking, Thinking

Reports would not down that Russia was
trying to find a way to lift the Berlin blockade.

Technically, the Russians had the power to keep it up indefinitely, and
for all the West knew, they might try to do just that. But the fact
was that the blockade had embarrassed the Russians more than it had the
West. Since the Western powers refused to let any trade pass into the
Russian zone while the blockade was on, the economic situation in
Russia's Germany has become increasingly serious. East Berlin's
Communist Mayor Friedrich Ebert last week publicly proposed that trade
between...